In recent years, as a communication medium, wireless LANs (Local Area Networks) which do not require any cable have prevailed as an addition to conventional wired LANs.
The wireless LAN limits the range within which services can be provided to the wireless communication area of a wireless base station. To provide services in a wide area, therefore, a plurality of wireless base stations are necessary.
In this case, assume that each wireless base station individually sets network information, and provides services. In this case, frequencies used by the wireless base stations may be centered on a specific frequency, or wireless base stations connected with wireless terminals may be centered on a specific wireless base station. This degrades the communication quality of a plurality of wireless communication networks as a whole.
To avoid such situation in advance, and implement high-quality wireless communication in each wireless communication network, various proposals have been made.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-67745, for example, has proposed the following configuration. That is, a management apparatus for managing wireless terminals and wireless base stations is provided. The management apparatus is notified which wireless base station can be connected with wireless terminals. The management apparatus which has received the notification specifies a wireless base station on the basis of the information.
Furthermore, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-178348 has proposed a configuration in which not only the information on the same wireless communication network but also that on another wireless communication network are managed. More specifically, the following configuration has been proposed. That is, it is determined in advance which wireless mobile device is to be an information providing device, and if a base station in another network requests information, the information providing device transmits the information via the wired-connected wireless base station.
The configurations disclosed in the above patent references, however, do not consider a case in which some of a plurality of wireless terminals forming a predetermined wireless communication network leave the wireless communication network, and form another wireless communication network.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-67745, for example, is based on the premise that a management apparatus manages information on wireless terminals forming the same wireless communication network. It does not disclose a configuration in which the management apparatus manages information on wireless terminals forming another wireless communication network.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-178348 is based on the premise that two wireless communication networks are wired, and has only disclosed a case in which information on the other wireless communication network is managed. This technique, therefore, is not directly applicable to the case in which some of the wireless terminals leave to form a new wireless communication network as described above.
On the other hand, if some of the wireless terminals leave as described above, it is desirable to be able to manage information on the wireless terminals which have left, in order to maintain the communication quality of a plurality of wireless communication networks as a whole.